Pseudo Saturn Kai official thread

[the Goat]

If Rmenu works fine, this may be a bug or something related to ODE being unsupported in Pseudo Saturn Kai.
. . .

I had not realized I needed Rmenu setup in order for Pseudo Saturn Kai ODE menu to work. Once I got Rmenu working, Pseudo Saturn Kai's menu worked straight away.

I suggest implementing a more graceful fail mode when Rmenu is not present. Like I stated in my first post, I was just seeing the UI lock up when the Pseudo Saturn booted. There was no error message displayed. The only way to recover was to delete the Pseudo Saturn save data.

Thank you.

 

[cafe-alpha]

The "more graceful fail mode" is actually already implemented in latest beta (not publicly available, but I shall release it soon), because a friend reported similar problem when no SD card is inserted in Rhea/Phoebe.

The lengthy technical explanation (that nobody will read) about this problem is that CD-ROM authentication by Rhea/Phoebe was returning "no disc" status, without beforehand checking for presence or absence of CD-ROM on Pseudo Saturn Kai side. CD-ROM library used in Pseudo Saturn Kai doesn't expects such status when authenticating CD-ROM and was consequently infinitely looping thus causing this disgraceful screen.

For my defense, instructions about Rhea/Phoebe menu setup are detailed in "Rhea/Phoebe ODE support" section in Pseudo Saturn Kai readme.
Additionally, I rewrote this ODE menu feature from scratch and without begging for any funding, so I'm personally quite proud of the result in Pseudo Saturn Kai v6.274 🙂

 

[Fadedrobin]

Hello Segaxtreme. Signed up specifically to get some help on installing pseudo Saturn. I have a knock off arp with a arp firmware on it and am trying to install pseudo Saturn. My problem is that everytime I try to run the installer it gets stuck on erasing! I've tried the alternate installer and the save data installer as well as wiggling it around before starting it.

 

[D3ltax55]

I got a red cartridge with the 3 option switch ontop with Pseudo Saturn Kai Lite V6.274
In the capability list it says Panzar Dragoon soga plays fine with patch. I patched the .que file and it says it was patched, ripped it and it doesn't boot. As for Panzar dragoon 2 it plays the intro then when it goes to the start menu it goes back to the main menu as stated on the capability list.. i seen a youtube video playing fine with the JHL option. His console was the gray one thou.l
Is it my console or something else? I have the black model 2 console with the rounded buttons. IDK the exact model as im not home.

 

[Ponut]

This video description has a download link for pre-patched ISOs.


As far as Panzer Dragoon 2 goes, I'm not entirely sure about that one. I lucked out and it just... worked. It could have been my ISO source had them already patched. Not sure.

 

[D3ltax55]

I tried that. put the jhl option and it just goes to the Sega logo then goes black screen for a min then reboots. Tried patching it also and still same issue.
Maybe the Saturn i got doesn't like it.

 

[Ponut]

I tried that. put the jhl option and it just goes to the Sega logo then goes black screen for a min then reboots. Tried patching it also and still same issue.
Maybe the Saturn i got doesn't like it.

Past using a good ISO, I would not assume it's the system. I had thought multiple times that "my saturn doesn't like it" or that it doesn't work with Pseudo Saturn. Many re-burns later, it worked. The only one I haven't gotten to work at all is the US release of MechWarrior 2 ACE.

I would assume you're dealing with bad burns. Some games are far more tolerant of bad burns and I do remember having to re-burn PD2 once, and I had to re-burn PDS like three times using different CD burners. If you have a legit Saturn original disc that plays a video sequence, that is a good one to test to see if your Saturn's laser is up to par. if it isn't the video or audio will skip. Even the slightest of skips makes many games crash. Magic Knight Rayearth is a particularly good burn-benchmark.

 

[D3ltax55]

meh i gave up and just bought the jap Panzar dragoon 2. it's only 30 bucks anyways. Ill try my portable blue ray burner made by Samsung. I was using a lg burner i bought recently.
Using Verbrin cd-r which is made by Mitsubishi. It's has the paper ontop for easy writing.
In the faq it says that not all models of the saturn support JHL. you think that could be the problem also? it's a version 2 saturn, black

 

[Ponut]

AFAIK there's about 12 or so different revisions of the NTSC Saturn. "Model 1" or "Model 2" is an indication of manufacture date, but not the strongest. Again, AFAIK, but the only issues with JHL are on early Japanese console versions.

If you have a relatively unused laptop around, try its disc drive.

 

[hugo19941994]

Hi. I've tried Pseudo Saturn Kai with a Rhea and it works great. I didn't really like having to go through the Action Replay menu every time I booted up my Saturn.

However I've encountered an issue with my setup. There's a guy in China who sells wireless Sega Saturn controller PCBs and receivers which you can put on the shell of an original controller. They work fine, but for some reason it looks like they eventually lock up the Pseudo Saturn menu.

I've recorded a short clip of the issue: (around the 0:35 mark)

With a wired controller I haven't been able to reproduce this issue.

 

[D3ltax55]

is there a list of what versions of Saturn JHL works with. mine is a version 2. i tried copying with 2 different burners.
I may just exchange it for another since that retro store does it. IDK how to explain that it's not running a game when it works.
I dought they will let me bring the cart in with a burnt copy of soga to test out.

 

[cafe-alpha]

Sorry for the delay ...

Hello Segaxtreme. Signed up specifically to get some help on installing pseudo Saturn. I have a knock off arp with a arp firmware on it and am trying to install pseudo Saturn. My problem is that everytime I try to run the installer it gets stuck on erasing! I've tried the alternate installer and the save data installer as well as wiggling it around before starting it.

This looks like a "Golden Finger" cartridge, which I know well because of poor connection reports I received so far. If you really want to install Pseudo Saturn Kai on it, then please use the alternate installer (because it is more swap-trick firendly than Save Data Manager), and prepare several hours in trying over and over to tweak cartridge instertion until eventually getting firmware correctly flashed.
*DISCLAIMER* I don't guarantee that Pseudo Saturn Kai can be installed, and don't guarantee that trying flashing over and over won't brick your cartridge.

According to the pictures of your cartridge PCB (thank you for uploading theses), it doesn't feature expansion RAM, so you may eventually want to purchase an Action Replay cartridge rather than using this one.

I got a red cartridge with the 3 option switch ontop with Pseudo Saturn Kai Lite V6.274
In the capability list it says Panzar Dragoon soga plays fine with patch. I patched the .que file and it says it was patched, ripped it and it doesn't boot. As for Panzar dragoon 2 it plays the intro then when it goes to the start menu it goes back to the main menu as stated on the capability list.. i seen a youtube video playing fine with the JHL option. His console was the gray one thou.l
Is it my console or something else? I have the black model 2 console with the rounded buttons. IDK the exact model as im not home.

All the incompatibility reports I received so far concerned grey Japanese Saturns, so your console should support PDS.
And no, I don't have a full compatibility chart of PDS for each Saturn hardware revision, because I personally don't own a lot of Saturns (and anyway wouldn't have time to test this game on all of theses Saturns), and lacking of extensive feedback from users too. Additionally, rigorously identifying Saturn hardware revision requires to dismantle it until motherboard PCB, which is quite tedious ; serial number helps a lot in first stage identification, but it isn't 100% safe, especially in the case the Saturn was repaired in the past. That's a bit off topic, but if you are curious about all flavours of Saturn hardware revisions, then this excelent homepage is a must see 🙂 SEGA SATURN

As indicated by @Ponut, please re-try with another dump of the game and also with other CD-R brand or other drive to burn CD-R.

Hi. I've tried Pseudo Saturn Kai with a Rhea and it works great. I didn't really like having to go through the Action Replay menu every time I booted up my Saturn.

However I've encountered an issue with my setup. There's a guy in China who sells wireless Sega Saturn controller PCBs and receivers which you can put on the shell of an original controller. They work fine, but for some reason it looks like they eventually lock up the Pseudo Saturn menu.

I've recorded a short clip of the issue: (around the 0:35 mark)

With a wired controller I haven't been able to reproduce this issue.

Thank you for the kind feedback about Rhea/Phoebe image selection menu 🙂 Developing it was a nightmare, and in proportion of that you're around the third user who praised about it so far ...

Can you please try this wired controller with something other than Pseudo Saturn Kai ? For example a game or Saturn BIOS screen etc.
If you can reproduce this problem elsewehere than Pseudo Saturn Kai then this needs to be fixed, else that's a problem on controller side, which is not my responsibility.
In the case Pseudo Saturn Kai needs to be fixed, I would then need your cooperation regarding beta testing = testing several isos, and reporting me behavior with your wireless controller.

 

[Miles McCloud]

I have the same Chinese wireless adapter the other user mentioned, and I have the same problem they have with it. It doesn't have problems in game or in the Saturn BIOS, just in the Pseudo Saturn menu. Sometimes it works for a second, sometimes it doesn't work at all. I'm willing to help test ISOs if it will help solve the issue. I'm using Pseudo Saturn Kai Lite with a flashed Action Replay on a Model 1 US Saturn with a Rhea ODE.

The other maybe odd behavior I'm having is that I can't seem to be able to get back to the ODE Image selection menu after a A+B+C+Start soft reset, or even by pressing the reset button. When I do a reset, it resets and loads Pseudo Saturn, but instead of going to the image selection screen it loads to the loader type selection menu. If go to the Start Game option, it does nothing, and if I press Start on the controller it loads the previously loaded game again. So I have to do a full power cycle to change games, not a huge deal, but I'm not sure if that's what it's supposed to be doing.

 

[Cliff Moore]

truly a big thank you for getting this software up and running. its been great working with it. The latest firmware is really good and its helped so much to make things run smoother all around. I do have one problem. problem I'm having with one of the 2 carts is with the memory expatiation on the action replay plus. it will not detect the 1m or 4m.

 

[cafe-alpha]

Re-sorry for the delay. This is the fiscal/scholar/whatever new year here so that I'm a bit busy with non-Saturn things ...

I have the same Chinese wireless adapter the other user mentioned, and I have the same problem they have with it. It doesn't have problems in game or in the Saturn BIOS, just in the Pseudo Saturn menu. Sometimes it works for a second, sometimes it doesn't work at all. I'm willing to help test ISOs if it will help solve the issue. I'm using Pseudo Saturn Kai Lite with a flashed Action Replay on a Model 1 US Saturn with a Rhea ODE.

@hugo19941994 didn't replied to my question about his wireless controller, so if you can help in testing, that would be great. Especially, testing will be convenient as you too own a Rhea.
I just sent you a PM, so please reply me if you're OK to help in testing 🙂
(I honestly can't guarantee that issue will be fixed; the best I can do is to try some things and hope theses will give some clues about what is going wrong)

The other maybe odd behavior I'm having is that I can't seem to be able to get back to the ODE Image selection menu after a A+B+C+Start soft reset, or even by pressing the reset button. When I do a reset, it resets and loads Pseudo Saturn, but instead of going to the image selection screen it loads to the loader type selection menu. If go to the Start Game option, it does nothing, and if I press Start on the controller it loads the previously loaded game again. So I have to do a full power cycle to change games, not a huge deal, but I'm not sure if that's what it's supposed to be doing.

This is unfortunately a known limitation caused by the fact that my understanding of Saturn CD Block is limited (I don't know how to properly reset it) and the fact that Rmenu (which access CD Block in a better way than Pseudo Saturn Kai) is closed-source.
Maybe this will be fixed in a future release ... or stay like this for a long while. Let's wait and "be praying" as said in Radiant Silvergun 🙂

truly a big thank you for getting this software up and running. its been great working with it. The latest firmware is really good and its helped so much to make things run smoother all around. I do have one problem. problem I'm having with one of the 2 carts is with the memory expatiation on the action replay plus. it will not detect the 1m or 4m.

Memory expansion is an hardware (cartridge) feature hence not concerned by Pseudo Saturn Kai. So if games don't detect it, it's likely that cartridge is not correctly inserted or damaged.

 

[privateye]

The other maybe odd behavior I'm having is that I can't seem to be able to get back to the ODE Image selection menu after a A+B+C+Start soft reset, or even by pressing the reset button. When I do a reset, it resets and loads Pseudo Saturn, but instead of going to the image selection screen it loads to the loader type selection menu. If go to the Start Game option, it does nothing, and if I press Start on the controller it loads the previously loaded game again. So I have to do a full power cycle to change games, not a huge deal, but I'm not sure if that's what it's supposed to be doing.

This is unfortunately a known limitation caused by the fact that my understanding of Saturn CD Block is limited (I don't know how to properly reset it) and the fact that Rmenu (which access CD Block in a better way than Pseudo Saturn Kai) is closed-source.
Maybe this will be fixed in a future release ... or stay like this for a long while. Let's wait and "be praying" as said in Radiant Silvergun 🙂

Pseudo Saturn Kai actually does allow you soft reset back to the image selection menu. You just have to do the following:

• Place Rmenu in folder 01 on your Rhea/Phoebe SD card.
• Insert the line reset_goto = 1 in an ini file on the root of your Rhea/Phoebe SD card. If you have a Rhea, the ini file should be named Rhea.ini. If you have a Phoebe it should be named Phoebe.ini.
• Ensure that the Soft Reset option is set to System Reset in the Pseudo Saturn Kai settings menu.

Please note that soft resetting back to the image selection menu does not work in games that require the JHL loader (e.g. Panzer Dragoon Zwei, Panzer Dragoon Saga), and a hard reset does not work with either the CWX or JHL loaders. In both instances you will be taken to the Select Loader screen, and from here you can press X+Y+Z+Start to perform a soft reset and go back to the image selection menu.

I think the reason @cafe-alpha got mixed up is that this soft reset behaviour is not currently supported in the yet-to-be-publicly-released RmenuKai, so he was half-right at least 😛

 

[dibz]

That RmenuKai is pretty amazing. One of these days/weeks/months/years I'll have to abandon my family during one of those order windows and try to get myself a rhea/phoebe.

 

[hugo19941994]

@hugo19941994 didn't replied to my question about his wireless controller, so if you can help in testing, that would be great. Especially, testing will be convenient as you too own a Rhea.
I just sent you a PM, so please reply me if you're OK to help in testing 🙂
(I honestly can't guarantee that issue will be fixed; the best I can do is to try some things and hope theses will give some clues about what is going wrong)

Hey really sorry for not replying. Very rude on my part when I was the one raising the issue. Just been busy with work... Of course I don't mind testing out firmwares, but please don't let this be a chore for you. I wouldn't want you to waste a lot your time on fixing an issue which affects only a handful of people! Plus you're taking shots in the dark without the actual hardware. I might just get a Dev cart and start poking around with GDB (seems like a fun project!).

As for your first post Pseudo Saturn Kai works perfectly with a wired controller - no problems there. It's just with this controller. I can't seem to reproduce the issue in the BIOS, rmenu or in any games (like Miles McCloud said). Still I wouldn't really call it a bug with Pseudo Saturn Kai - it would be more like circumventing some sort of issue with this controller which isn't really behaving like it should.

 

[cafe-alpha]

Pseudo Saturn Kai actually does allow you soft reset back to the image selection menu. You just have to do the following:

• Place Rmenu in folder 01 on your Rhea/Phoebe SD card.
• Insert the line reset_goto = 1 in an ini file on the root of your Rhea/Phoebe SD card. If you have a Rhea, the ini file should be named Rhea.ini. If you have a Phoebe it should be named Phoebe.ini.
• Ensure that the Soft Reset option is set to System Reset in the Pseudo Saturn Kai settings menu.

Please note that soft resetting back to the image selection menu does not work in games that require the JHL loader (e.g. Panzer Dragoon Zwei, Panzer Dragoon Saga), and a hard reset does not work with either the CWX or JHL loaders. In both instances you will be taken to the Select Loader screen, and from here you can press X+Y+Z+Start to perform a soft reset and go back to the image selection menu.

I think the reason @cafe-alpha got mixed up is that this soft reset behaviour is not currently supported in the yet-to-be-publicly-released RmenuKai, so he was half-right at least 😛

Welcome on sx forums, and thank you for your support !!
The main reason I mixed up about soft reset support is that I was probably a bit tired when I wrote the post about it 😀

That RmenuKai is pretty amazing. One of these days/weeks/months/years I'll have to abandon my family during one of those order windows and try to get myself a rhea/phoebe.

I don't know about RmenuKai (I'm its author, so I won't say it is good or not !), but Rhea/Phoebe are good ODEs that are worth the investment if you are tired to physically remove and insert game CD-ROMs 🙂

Hey really sorry for not replying. Very rude on my part when I was the one raising the issue. Just been busy with work... Of course I don't mind testing out firmwares, but please don't let this be a chore for you. I wouldn't want you to waste a lot your time on fixing an issue which affects only a handful of people! Plus you're taking shots in the dark without the actual hardware. I might just get a Dev cart and start poking around with GDB (seems like a fun project!).

As for your first post Pseudo Saturn Kai works perfectly with a wired controller - no problems there. It's just with this controller. I can't seem to reproduce the issue in the BIOS, rmenu or in any games (like Miles McCloud said). Still I wouldn't really call it a bug with Pseudo Saturn Kai - it would be more like circumventing some sort of issue with this controller which isn't really behaving like it should.

No problem, I'm actually quite busy with non-Saturn things too.
Wireless pad seems to work fine with everything else than Pseudo Saturn Kai, so this definitely needs to be fixed. I just sent you a PM regarding beta testing, so in advance thank you for your help 🙂

 

[colonyoo]

Been having a weird issue that I posted elsewhere but figure here might be a better place to inquire about it:

Recently I decided to purchase one of these pre-flashed PS carts. I got it because while my flashed Action Replay cart generally got the job done, the malfunctioning RAM issue they suffer from led to some problems. Not being able to play backups of Street Fighter Zero 3 because of this was one thing, but having to switch back to my legitimate RAM carts every time I wanted to play a legitimate disc made me fear for the lifespan of my system's cartridge slot, as I've already had RAM connection issues in the past. Being able to just keep one cartridge in the system is ideal, and the extra backup memory was a nice bonus too.

For the most part, the new cartridge seems to work wonderfully! I haven't had a single issue or RAM corruption error with any game yet. However, I still have a strange issue relating to Zero 3 once it gets into a match. The music on most of the game's stages will immediately start to skip, temporarily freezing the game while it attempts to address the error and making the game unplayable.

I thought it might be the disc being too dirty or scratched, as it sometimes had audio skipping issues through the AR cart (though no game freezing), but even after burning a fresh disc that matches redump, the issue persisted. I tried it with my older AR cart again, and apart from the eventual RAM corruption, the game played flawlessly. I've also tried downgrading the version of PSKai on the ebay cart to match the one on my AR cart, but it didn't fix anything.

I'm not too plussed if it's just this one game that doesn't work, but I'm fairly curious what would even cause this sort of thing to happen to just one game to begin with.